The San Diego Padres are the best team in baseball since the All-Star break, and it looks like they’re going to keep this ride going for as long as possible.

The Padres defeated the Dodgers 4-2 on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, making the final three outs on a TRIPLE PLAY to officially clinch a playoff spot and keep alive their hopes of winning the National League West division title, something they haven’t done since 2006.

The Dodgers got on the board first, thanks to Shohei Ohtani and Xander Bogaerts. The Dodgers superstar led off with a double off Michael King (who set a Dodgers franchise record with his 95th extra-base hit of the season) and scored when Mookie Betts hit a routine grounder to shortstop. Bogaerts threw the ball over Donovan Solano at first base and out of the game, allowing Ohtani to score and make it 1-0 LA.

In the top of the 2nd inning, the Friars got that run back plus one. Jackson Merrill singled and came home when Jake Cronenworth hit a rocket into the right field seats of Dodgers starter Landon Knack for a 2-run homer and a 2-1 lead.

King didn’t have his best stuff, but he did what the Padres’ pitching staff has become known for: He fought through it. A hit, a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases in the second inning, but King missed Betts to end the threat. After needing 50 pitches to get through two innings, the big right-handed pitcher settled down.

He threw 45 pitches over the next three innings, allowing just one more baserunner, keeping LA at bay and allowing his offense to continue to thrive.

In the 4th inning, Knack allowed a leadoff double to Jurickson Profar, then threw out Manny Machado and let Merrill fly out. But with two outs, this San Diego lineup is extremely hard to stop. Bogaerts made up for his mistake with an RBI single to score Profar, then Jake The Dodger Killer struck again.

Cronenworth doubled to left-center field for an RBI double and a 4-1 Padres lead. The arms and gloves took over from there.

In the 5th inning, Ohtani hit a flare to left field. Profar was playing deep against the slugger, so he had a long way to go to run straight and make a fantastic diving catch to steal another hit from the presumptive National League MVP.

From there it was a battle of the bullpens and in the 7th inning Mike Shildt made a great decision. The Dodgers had Ohtani at 3rd so instead of keeping his best arms in their traditional roles he brought in his usual 8th inning specialist Tanner Scott, who is left-handed. It worked brilliantly.

After giving up a leadoff single to Kike Hernandez, Scott got a double play ball from Miguel Rojas and struck out Ohtani with three straight fastballs. In the 8th, Jason Adam came up and got some more help from Profar, who made another excellent diving catch to rob Betts of extra bases, setting up the 9th inning for Robert Suarez.

The All-Star closer has had some rough outings of late. This was no exception. Suarez allowed singles to Will Smith and La Jolla Country Day High School alumnus Tommy Edman, bringing in the tying run with nobody out. Hernandez followed with a broken bat single, cutting the lead to 4-2. With Ohtani lurking, the improbable happened.

Rojas made a triple play around the horn, one of the rarest occurrences in baseball, ending the game.

San Diego is 2.0 games behind the Dodgers in the division and can only get one run on Wednesday night with Dylan Cease on the mound against Jack Flaherty in what should be a great pitching matchup. If the Padres sweep, they would have the same record as LA but would technically be in first place because they won the head-to-head season series.

That would leave one final series in Arizona over the weekend to decide who rules the West and who will have to host a best-of-three Wild Card series. Whatever happens, this much is certain:

San Diego is hosting baseball again in October. Get ready, Friar Faithful. This is going to be a fun ride.